Jonathan Meades Abroad Again
I’ve been getting increasingly irritated by TV documentaries. Even if they are factually sound and reasonably balanced (unlike this week’s Panorama programme), they frequently repeat things pointlessly, particularly on commercial channels where adverts break the programme up. For some reason, the documentary makers seem to assume that my working memory decays irretrievably after about two minutes, so they are constantly reminding me what they’ve just said. After a while this drives me crazy, and I end up yelling at the presenter that I am capable of retaining simple information for more than a few minutes, thank you very much. If you add that annoyance to the dumbed-down explanations and language often employed, documentaries are seldom worth watching.
Which is why I’ve been enjoying Jonanthan Meades’ latest architecture documentary, Abroad Again. He’s a very unconventional presenter in many ways, but he creates a wonderful line of argument, sustained over the length of the entire programme, putting his particular point of view. He uses rich language and long words, and if you don’t understand a particular reference, well then — you can just go and look it up. You have to concentrate a bit to keep up with him.
You could argue that this is elitist. It’s true that there is a middle way between these two approaches; it is possible to produce an informative programme on a difficult topic without either losing your audience or insulting their intelligence, but it is difficult to do. Personally, I’m enjoying being mentally stretched for a change.
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You have to bear in mind for which market that sort of documentary has been made. You must have noticed that the younger generation doesn't seem to have the the intellectual stamina of previous students. I doubt that they are any less intelligent, but they seem to have experienced sound-bite teaching and tick box examinations; and a lack of continuity in both. An average secondary education lasts 5-7 years and for the last 10 years the methodology and emphasis seems to have changed 3 times; so no child has completed the whole of their secondary education experience under the same system. I have noticed in my daughter's friends a lack of general knowledge and of what used to be called "An all round education". I asked one where she was going on holiday, she told me Aya Napa, I asked here where it was, meaning where in Cyprus; she said "Dunno, I get on the plane and it takes me there".
My boss asked me to rewritea letter because he thought that the recipient wouldn't understand it as it contained too many words of more than two syllables, and as for using the word concatenation, not a hope in hell.
Oh, it's downhill all the way.........
by Jonathan Briggs @ 25/05/2007 5:45 pm • Permalink •
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The continual repetition in "documentaries" and such is probably to limit the need for content, most such programs have actually about 10 minutes of actual program, which saves much money and effort. I´m not actually not sure if the younger generation is less educated, this is an accusation I first heard made against my generation many years ago and is something I now hear my generation saying about younger generations. Myself I´ve always assumed the level of practiced and arrogant ignorance in humanity has and is pretty constant. However I wouldn´t be surprised if the younger generations , having been raised with much more continual, varied and coexperienced media, experiences all media as a "background sensory input multitasking environment" which we interpet as a short attention span. Bur no question that most documentaries suck and are insulting intellectually.
by jc. @ 26/05/2007 2:06 pm • Permalink •
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Is it a reflection of the intelligence/ ability of the viewer to concentrate, broadcasting techniques or simply viewing habits? I wonder if a level of "channel hopping" is assumed and so a recap is planned in after a certain time. Drives me mad as it totally loses any flow.
by Julian @ 26/05/2007 2:34 pm • Permalink •
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glad it isn't only me that it annoys - it's even affecting really simple TV. http://smallspikyanimalproject.blogspot.com/2007/03/grrr-evan-davis-and-others-can-you.html
by bounder @ 03/06/2007 9:00 am • Permalink •
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